Victory at Villers-

Bretonneux
 By
Peter Fitzsimons
Random House Australia
It's early 1918, and after four brutal years, the fate of the Great War
hangs in the balance.

On the one hand, the fact that Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks
have seized power in Russia - immediately suing for peace with
Germany - means that no fewer than one million of the Kaiser's
soldiers can now be transferred from there to the Western Front.

On the other, now that America has entered the war, it means that
two million American soldiers are also on their way, to tip the scales
of war to the Allies.

The Germans, realising that their only hope is striking at the Allied
lines first, do exactly that, and on the morning of 21 March 1918,
the Kaiserschlacht, the Kaiser's battle, is launched - the biggest set-
piece battle the world has ever seen.

Across a 45-mile front, no fewer than two million German soldiers

hurl themselves at the Allied lines, with the specific intention of
splitting the British and French forces, and driving all the way
through to the town of Villers-Bretonneux, at which point their
artillery will be able to rain down shells on the key train-hub town
of Amiens, thus throttling the Allied supply lines.

For nigh on two weeks, the plan works brilliantly, and the Germans
are able to advance without check, as the exhausted British troops
flee before them, together with tens of thousands of French
refugees.

In desperation, the British commander, General Douglas Haig, calls

upon the Australian soldiers to stop the German advance, and save
Villers-Bretonneux. If the Australians can hold this, the very gate to
Amiens, then the Germans will not win the war.

'It's up to us, then,' one of the Diggers writes in his diary.

Arriving at Villers-Bretonneux just in time, the Australians are

indeed able to hold off the Germans, launching a vicious
counterattack that hurls the Germans back the first time.

And then, on Anzac Day 1918, when the town falls after all to the
British defenders, it is again the Australians who are called on to
save the day, the town, and the entire battle.

Not for nothing does the primary school at Villers-Bretonneux have

above every blackboard, to this day, 'N'oublions jamais, l'Australie.'
Never forget Australia.

And they never have.

Random House Australia

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